People really think Rico was good?

Lewis looked far more out of shape & ponderous vs Vitali in 03. And Vitali was awkward & an elite heavyweight in his prime.

Usyk has declined but he would struggle with the P Fury gypsy style even in his prime & fighting non-boxers isnt easy. T Fury deserves a bit of leeway for the ngannou farce in hindsight.

For me, he could still have one last great performance left in the tank

 

With usyk's high technicality and age come weak spots like those rico was able to use.

Rico had a lot of head and guard movement to stop usyks straight punches.

His forward posture was specific for straight punches.

He didn't bite on feints, but actually i think he was just prepared to take punches if they weren't feints.

That allowed him to control the rhythm. Just by not reacting to usyk.

Those are all tactical elements that work exactly against someone who relies on his technique to overcome his age and physical disadvantages. (Usyk is not for nothing a p4p king)

Dubois is at his perfect age.
Dubois has a super strong body.
Dubois has power.
He can take a shot.
He is willing to take a shot to give one.
If his technique failed him, he still has pure physicality.

Now how would rico use dubois' weaknesses? Will he outbox dubois to the point he is overwhelmed and gives up? No way in hell.

Everyone is only looking at ricos strengths and usyks weaknesses. Rico has a weakness, he will not outbox anyone. He can outwork them. But as soon as someone is a pucncher, it's over.

I would actually argue Rico loses against anyone in the top ten.

He could only look this good against usyk because of his age and dependence on technique. At this point he might also look good against fury who will have trouble knocking him out, if he can avoid the uppercut.

But even joshua will have a field day with rico. He doesn't punch hard enough to trouble joshua and that would be his downfall. Joshua can just wait for the right Punch to present itself. Rico will walk into it with his high activity.

I would enjoy huni vs rico, though.

For the future it should be the least for those crossover fighters to fight some top 15 Fighter before fighting the number 1.

 

I mean you didn't really answer my question. If Rico could come into Usyk and take him 11 rounds, what makes you think he can't beat a far less skilled Dubios? If power was the key to heavyweight Usyk wouldn't be the top man of the division still

 

The comparison that immediately came to mind was Primo Carnera, for good and for ill.

 

I see the MMA crowd talking about how Rico destroyed Usyk. Most didn't even watch the fight. If they studied Rico at all he doesn’t have much power for a big man. Keeps well tucked and busy. Don’t think he will do great in future. But he has earned another shot. Usyk would handle him easy in rematch. Give him credit for fighting his tail off till he got caught. There has been other fights in history like this. Zeljko Mavrovic against Lewis. David Tiberi against Toney is another who was very busy and odd styled. No punching power but very busy. Toney came in unprepared and should have lost.

 

I thought i had - usyk has weaknesses, dubois doesn't have. Few boxers would be strong against those weaknesses but weak against dubois. But in ricos case it makes sense. Because of the stylistic match i described.

I think it is a triangle. Usyk beats dubois beats rico looks good against usyk.

I dont expect prime briedis to have a chance against dubois either and still he troubled usyk a lot.

Also Power is not the only key to heavy but one of them. And it's generally the case that someone able to use their power will have an advantage over a swarmer/slugger/pressure fighter or whatever it was rico did.

 

lol the guy who pretty much almost beat the number 1 guy... is probably... top 25?? lol

 

Apart from size and power, I don't see what other disadvantages Usyk has against Dubios. Dubios has a pretty major weakness in that he is easy to confuse and gives up when he feels overwhelmed. Rico's herky-jerky approach will make Dubios shoot early and be open to some nasty counters.

Dubios looks great against guys who are willing to stand and trade because he can overpower them. I don't think Rico gives him the opportunity to do that to the same extent someone like Hrgovic, Miller or AJ does.

But you could be right, could be that a very different scenario plays out. I'd love to see that fight happen.

 

Did you say the same about Ngannou after he fought Fury

 

I think it would be a very natural fight to make. I think warren will see it as a good risk reward proposition for dubois, rico has a shot at a top dog with a belt and has nothing else to do unless usyk is ready for the direct rematch and i think by beating dubois twice, usyk has made him his natural clean-up guy. I mean that if dubois beats someone, people will automatically equate it with usyk actually being way better. They will think usyk just aged or had a bad day or whatever and ignore it and he will be partly redeemed without doing anything. And boxing will look better.

My personal objection would be that dubois also has a belt to defend. But noone seems to care about that anymore...

 

Wasn't similar performances, Usyk is a generational talent,
one of the greatest ever, been on a dominant run, Rico was boxing well the whole time, start to finish.

 

Its extremely similar.. Fury looked fat. Usyk looked fat. Only difference is that Ngannou dropped Fury and that Usyk stopped Rico

Both extremely embarrasing performances for boxing

 

It will be interesting to see what Rico does if he doesn't get an immediate (which it doesn't look like he will get). Is he confident enough to face a contender, like Ngannou did, or will he opt not to take any risks until Usyk is ready to face him again. Ngannou is definitely a warning example here.

Whomever he faces next won't take him lightly. Parker would probably be the best matchup for him of contenders around the top 5. Lacks the power to keep strong swarmers off him - lost to Joyce and struggled with Chisora. Dubois and Itauma would be very dangerous for him, I think, but they are otherwise engaged anyhow. So is AJ, another likely stylistic problem, and Fury. Zhang and Bakole are both more dangerous for Rico than Parker, I believe, despite both having lost to him, so Parker would be perfect.

 

Fury doesn't deserve leeway. He's relatively pillow fisted (for a heavyweight.. that's what Ngannou went at). Besides that, the story with Fury after decimating Wilder was that he was the GOAT. TOO BIG for EVERYBODY that ever boxed.

Usyk got a rub from that.

 

Some good insight from Bivol on why Usyk struggled:

This content is protected

I think a big factor was that Verhoeven simply wasn't reacting to Usyk's faints (which are a big part of his game); whilst a steadfast boxer would instinctually react to faints as programmed by years of training, Verhoeven simply kept plowing forward completely invariant to them.